When is a Englishman home and garden not a castle.

Goodness as you say bit of communication and consideration wouldn't go amiss, doesnt seem to work that way anymore, hope all ok

That's terrible !

Thank you Daylily and Hywel. Unfortunately that is one of the main problems we have had with next door. From in November them cracking our mains water while doing DIY and so turning it off and not even coming around to tell us. We ended up with no water for 8 hours. Doing DIY in the garden till 10pm even continuing in winter months with flood lights and then also the hedge they won't cut. But I was as said shocked that Open Reach can just come into my garden like that. When I phoned them all I got was as long as we don't damage anything or touch the ground we can go it any height we like over your garden and do what we like and we don't have to talk to the property owner 1st.

Well that's very bad. I think people should complain about that. Something should be done about it.

Hywel, I put in a complaint both to BT and Open Reach but got told there is nothing I can do.i was treated as they didn't understand why I would be upset finding the Cherry picker bucket in my garden as I said, at one time only 5ft off the ground and no one even knocking on the door.

How awful. We know these things can happen, but a simple apology from your neighbour would have helped just a little bit regarding the burst water main. I may be mistaken, but I thought there was a cut off time of 8 or 9pm for DIY work. If that is the case maybe you could contact the council if it continues. Unfortunately, not everyone is considerate of others around them. Hard as it is, try not to let them get you down, and continue to enjoy your garden. Hopefully, the DIY is for a project and will cease once completed.

It is so wrong that Open Reach and other companies can just come into your garden like that. It's just common decency to let you know. I think anyone would have been shocked to find that when they looked out of the window to their back garden.

Well, the answer to “why” is surely because its decent behaviour, good manners and prevents you getting a fright. Shocking.

Lisam, till the burst water we had kept quiet but I did when he finally open the gates go around and have words over the water and everything else like drilling holes in our garden wall (Not party wall) and lots of other things. We have tried to be understanding that he works and only had so many hours that he was home to do the jobs. Anyone as you say can make a mistake like with the water but it was the fact that he didn't bother to come over, just shut his gates. What added salt was they still had water.

Finding out that companys like open reach can do that was the reason I posted this blog. I was shocked and felt invaded apon that I wanted to warn others.

Lol, Karen, that's what I said to both the Engineer and When I phoned Open Reach but both times they just told me that they don't have too as they have "flying rights" and that I don't own the air above my property.

Oh Jen,I am sorry you are going through all this,good manners cost nothing,I didn't know this about open reach either.

Well the birds will have somewhere nice to perch when the warm weather comes again.

Thanks Callie1914. We have our fingers crossed that they are doing it up to sale ?.

Dianebulley, lol. In the picture you can see there is a pole. There are already 3 wires going from that along their drive. The new wire is not attached to the pole but from corner of their house, cross our garden to the road. The birds have enough wires already ?.

Have a look at this link https://www.inbrief.co.uk/land-law/land-ownership/ Seems to say you do indeed have some rights to your airspace but maybe Openreach have some arrangements at law of their own. If the wires that are over your garden are not supplying your house you may be able to get a wayleave though probably not just for a few wires..

Could be worse though Jen. We have overhead mains cables and a transformer on a double pole in our garden, and an ordinary wooden pole taking electricity to the houses at the bottom of the garden at the back. The transformer was changed a couple of years ago but they did come and tell us first. We do get a very small annual rental for them though.(Because of the Wayleave which gives them the right to come on the property and do what is necessary) The real fun was when next door decided to cut down one of their trees themselves and brought a mains transmission line down across our drive....lots of drama! At least your invasion was temporary!

Years ago when central heating was in its infancy, I heard of some people who bought a house with C/H.
Did all the hassle, moved in. The radiators didnt really get as hot as they expected.
Husband took up the floorboards between the radiators to have a look-see and found the 'pipework' between them
was garden hose !

Thank you so much Sue. Just looked it up and was really interesting. Wished I had the money to challenge Open Reach in court as to if they can just put a cherry picker over my hedge like they did.
Poor you. Sounds dreadful about your drama. We also have a pole in front garden that we get rent for and every time they want to inspect it, they knock on the door and ask.

Open Reach will have an Area Manager who is overseeing this work Jen. He orders up the cherry picker (overhead cranes you see in London are £4,000 a day) and gives the orders to the men working with it. He is the one to find and talk to. If you find him he will explain the reasons for the work in progress and what future plans he has to work to. I know because my son is a Chief Electrical Engineer and he does the same job for another firm.

Thanks Dianebulley. What gets me is I don't think they needed to come over my hedge. The other side of the shorter wall is next doors parking area. They had access to where the new wire was fitted from there and did later do that. It was also that when I said it would of been nice if someone had taken the time just to knock on my door before starting, the reply of just one word "why" and the same attitude when I phoned up to complain.

Unravelling this puzzle a bit more, I should imagine the
Area Manager works from home hundreds of miles away, gets all his instructions email (my son gets 200 a day 5 days a week) and instructs his team of engineers by iPad (or whatever that thing they send messages on these days).
Therefore he may have already visited the site when no one was about, or worked from the plans with no visit involved, as he knows what the job entails because his team have done others the same, or have drawn up the plans.
Therefore not come to adjacent properties, was only thinking about the best way to do the job, where to order up the materials and cherry picker required, which team to use, how to do it, how to keep within budget etc.
His team would not be trained to deal with the public,
as that costs money, therefore they could not think of what to say.
Its all high technology Jen.
Best to just wait to see what happens.
I am in the wrong job !

After all Jen no damage was done and they weren't there long.
Actually I didn't find our drama dreadful at all. I strode over the cable so I could put something at the end of the drive to stop OH bringing the car down and then just watched. It was interesting and fortunately did no damage at all. These things happen. Getting upset does no good to anybody actually.

I totally understand where you are coming from Jenlewis. Your neighbour should be more considerate and a simple explanation and apology would have gone a long way.

I think Diane is probably right on this. They clearly aren't trained to deal with people, which is a sad indictment on our society. All that anyone cares about these days is a the bottom line, which is fine, but not by itself. People and people's feelings still matter, and I would be really p'd off if I came home to find anyone from any company in my garden in a cherry picker and I'd not been given a heads up from anyone. It never hurts to be kind.....ever.

But it didn't do any damage and I don't suppose it was there long. I would have felt a bit put out but not really upset.If the man had tried to work from the other side the sun would have been in his eyes. It would just have been a lot nicer if he'd taken the trouble to pop round and mention it to you first.

Lol, just had a thought - anything that overhangs you from your neighbour's side you are allowed to chop off as long as you return it to him...Maybe that only applies to plants...

I agree with you Sue, that if it had been a one off and as you say, nothing damaged then I would leave it. Unfortunately there is a long list of things that have happened that I think the Cherry picker was the icing on top of lack of consideration from next door. When I had words about not telling us that he had turned off our water, closing his gate and going indoors, he even admitted that they just do things involving in someway us and should tell us and hadn't.

This incident highlights the modern technical methods of working, which are quite different from years ago.

Just in case anyone is interested, there are 19 different types of Electrical Contractor. One of which is the man who goes along the crane jib to put a new bulb in the light at
the end !

The incident concerning the water was crass ignorance,
and unforgivable. Jen did well to speak up.

I hope relations will be better in future. We all need each other in this world.

Oh Jen I'm so sorry to read what troubles you're having with your neighbours. I wouldn't know how to deal with bad neighbours as I've always been lucky enough to have good ones. Do you think if you were to approach your neighbours and tell them that you think you've all got off on the wrong foot and perhaps you could start again???

Hi Waddy. I wish is was so easy. I had bit my tongue over everything till the water mains. I would take over baking, give them the extra plants that I grew ie tomatoes and flowers. When we had a power cut, she came over to see if effected us as well and I had her come in and wait here as I have had a gas hob(So could do hot drinks) and gas fire and she has small children. Things changed when last year when after asking 5 times over 2 yrsfor their hedge to be cut and them saying yes every time only finally to be told they had no intention to cut it and if my greenhouse was now in shade that I should just move it. It is a brick wall base. He finally agreed to cut some out of the middle. Cut it from my side, used a rake to pull all cuttings my side and then walked away left me to clear up and take to tip. I still held my tongue but since then she won't talk to us. When I lost my temper over the water with him, I did go and apologize for losing my temper. He will if he really has to, talk to us but she still won't. The hedge is now over 20ft tall and again he has said will cut but then added when he gets around to it.

Bad neighbors are an abomination. They ruin the quality of life..and I know we only get one of those.
Sorry to say Jen,but the squeaky wheel gets the oil. Unless I raise my voice and drop in a "Let me speak to your supervisor" I get ignored. Sometimes sugar works on bad fence mates.but if they ignore you? Get louder and call the police.
Just remember though,stupid people do stupid things.

Thanks Stan. Unfortunately you are right. Over here in 2003 a law was passed that stopped people being able to grow their hedge over 2m. To use the law, you have to show a paper trail and also pay my local council £350 but they can then force the hedge to be cut. I have now told them yesterday that if the hedge is not cut soon then I will use this law which can result in them getting an anti social behaviour order from the court. We plan to follow this up with a letter next week. Hate that it's come to this but if I want to be able to use my veg plot and greenhouse then I don't think I have any choice.

I am sorry to hear of your troubles but I do offer a word caution with the hedge its not as simple as a paper trail and paying £350 or we would all do it.
If its the hedge in the above photo it is not overly high or even casting a shadow, it would seem its your own house that is doing that.
If this hedge is ordered to be cut by a court which I doubt will happen it may have to be paid every time it needs cutting and your neighbours could have a case for harassment as odd as that sounds.
The law may come down on their side and award them costs against you. I urge you to get proper advice before parting with this £350 which may end up leading to Thousands of pounds being paid out by you if they take you to court.
Take time out to really think about this over a cuppa are the neighbours that bad? is the hedge that bad? and judging from the sun in your garden photo your veg will grow. Do you not have new neighbours that you resent just because they are new and daring to make some changes?
So think long and hard before you escalate this into something that is beyond your control and you may come to regret Best wishes Denise.

Hi Drc726.
Thank you for the advise. I'm not doing any of this lightly and plan to get advise. I really hate confrontation and normally keep quiet about things for a quiet life. The hedge in photo on this blog is my hedge that I had cut back last year. The hedge that is contention is the other end of the garden and now over 20 ft tall and a leylandii. It is along the part of garden that was set up by previous owner as a veg plot and greenhouse as it was ideal location then. The 1st 2 years I did ask very nicely. When they finally admitted they don't intend to cut it, the reason was that she doesn't want to be able to see our house or the shop next door to me from her upstairs Windows and wants to grow them taller then both buildings, both 2 storey buildings. Unfortunately it is not just me that she has fallen out with. She has upset the shop owner and also the owner of the land that is at both in front and behind her house with access to both parts through part of next doors garden. That one is going to court. He has been advised by his solicitor never to go onto his own land now without a witness till the end of the court case. I really wish with all my heart that we could sort it by just taking.

This is much better as it shows there is scope for a meeting of all the people affected by this anti-social behaviour.
A list of the complaints should be drawn up.
Joint action is better than one family acting alone.
Some suggestions of acceptable solutions would be more
helpful, and what would be agreeable to all the parties
concerned.

That would be ideal Diane, but mediation has already been offered and turned down between them and owner of the land in front and back of them, that is why it going to court.. I am still hoping that things can still get sorted.

Oh dear Jen, I really feel for you. X

One might be tempted to slip some ads under their door showing really nice houses at reasonable prices somewhere else...

Thank you Waddy. ?

Sue, worth a try ?

As this is now a serious matter, and I dont have much faith in one person v. Courts, if you lose you may have to pay considerable costs...........

I think A RESIDENTS ASSOCIATION is the best way forward.
All affected persons/property owners should group together at a meeting, decide how it should be funded, what percentage each member should pay, open a Bank Account in the name of the Association, what cost should be paid for professional legal help and advice, all the evidence typed up as a legal paper with copies to all members, including agreed decisions for the way forward. Remember QCs are £800 a day so best avoided!

It will give you the confidence to stand up for yourselves without the worry of dealing with these people on your own, which has failed so far.

p.s. 'Appointed Treasurers' have been known to bunk off with the money.
The monthly Bank Statement can be copied and circulated to all members with a newsletter. Everyone is involved.

Thank you Diane for all that information. Only trouble is that there are only the 2 houses here, mine and my neighbours. The shop owner owns his building but lives a couple of villages away and the same with the land owner.

If they are property owners they have the same financial interest as you and your family.
Also any landowners, farmers, British Telecom, whatever.

I just hope to read a happier outcome of this awful situation soon. Maybe for Easter ?

Thank you Diane

I continue to keep hoping.